The Hytrol Story

The year 1969 kept Tom, Chuck, Sam, Ralph and every Hytrol employee very busy. Sales continued to skyrocket. The only mistake the company had made during the last expansion was not making the plant big enough. Once again, the production area became crowded, and deliveries were suffering. Space in the Stockyard was also quite limited, and an expansion to this building was started in early spring. Plans called for doubling the size to 18,000 sq. ft. The Jonesboro Sun , the local newspaper, ran a front-page headline in its May 6, 1969 issue. “Hytrol Plans Expansion” read the announcement and below it, a photograph of Tom, Chuck, and Jonesboro Mayor Neil Stallings, along with other Chamber of Commerce dignitaries. They were seated at a Chamber press conference. The story told of Hytrol’s planned expansion to more than double the size of the Jonesboro plant to over 74,000 sq. ft. The expansion included 6,000 sq. ft of office and engineering area. Tom was quoted as saying, “We are now designing complete conveying systems, and our company is doing more engineering work. We are becoming one of the better known names in the conveyor industry.” It was no idle boast. Hytrol was growing rapidly. The employee work force had grown from 40, when Hytrol opened in Jonesboro in 1962, to over 75. New distributors were being added almost monthly and the company was now represented in almost every state. The Hytrol Hi-Lites, which began as a small information sheet in September of 1960, and was transformed into a monthly newsletter in October, 1967, was now featuring complete conveying systems, designed and 15 c o n t i n u e d g r o w t h